A Bias to Action: A Summary of The Achievement Habit

The Achievement Habit is written by Bernard Roth, an engineering professor and co-founder of Stanford’s D School. The book is a half biography, half self help book that uses the concepts of design thinking, awareness, and a bias to action to help you shape your life.

Here are my key take-aways from the book:

Live with a bias towards action

Doing is better than not doing.

When you have the choice to think about doing something, vs, doing something, you typically want to do it.

Most great things in life are accomplished by simply getting started. Put pen to paper, write a few lines of code, stretch the canvas, move your feet and you are already 90% there.

Design thinking

Much of the book is spent discussing the design thinking framework which he co-created at Stanford’s D school. Design thinking makes sure that you are solving the *right* problem. Here it is.

Empathize, ideate, prototype, test, iterate

Bernie uses stories and examples to demonstrate that we are often stuck solving the wrong problem and is the main reason why we run into walls and can’t climb over them. He provides a simple framework for applying design thinking to your life as it relates to achieving your goals and finding happiness.

I will do a bigger post on the design thinking process as I have found it provides real value in my life when you remember to apply it..

Reasons are bullshit

Excuses and reasons for behaviour are bullshit, end of.

The sooner you embrace the fact that when you give someone a reason for your behaviour, you are not being honest with yourself, the freer you will become. This resonated with me a lot given that I often find myself making excuses, typically because I have over-promised my time.

There might be really good reasons why you are late to a meeting, but the truth is that at the end of the day you…